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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Other readers have expressed feelings similar to mine: farm-raised salmon tastes terrible compared to the wild Alaskan variety and the "farmed product" ptobably is nutritionally bankrupt. Once I learned several years ago that, in salmon-speak, "Atlantic" is synonimous with "raised on a farm and fed dyed corn-meal," I stopped purchasing it and have only bought Alaskan wild salmon since.
One down-side not mentioned in the article or by reader comments is that Chile's salmon boom has contributed to the near-demise of Alaska's salmon industry. Since 1985, revenues from Alaskan salmon have declined *70%*!
I have seen the evidence first-hand. On our most recent trip to Alaska in 2002, my wife and I flew over many of Kodiak Island's salmon processing plants. All were shuttered.
Not to sound protectionist, but isn't it time to start being concerned about *American* workers?
Of course, once Americans get over their faddish desire for cheap, tasteless Chilean "imitation fish food product," the South American workers will be forced back into subsistance farming. I doubt that Alaska's salmon industry will recover, however.
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Good article on salmon; informative and better than what you've been running lately. Let's have more such reporting, and less (a) hot air from writers with the same opinions as can be found in any number of other places on the web and in print, and (b) celebrity/personality obsession masquerading as journalism/criticism. Thanks.
I would like to know who the other unions are that are working with Sierra Club on the issue of ocean "farming" of salmon. Here in Hawaii we are told that sea farming will be a good economic engine for our depleted stocks of fish ---- and create more jobs. Our legislators in the state do not appear to be interested in hearing about any negatives either - when it came to ocean liners and dumping of waste around the islands it took years for any action on their trash practices. We have 4 major Wal-Marts on the island of Oahu - with another one being built. The Wal-Mart effect is here - and yet no word from our local press, and just some local union voices over the mega-stores. The issue of what is in the Wal-Mart - and how it remains so cheap - is a question that is VERY rarely asked by anyone who steps into the store. It should be the first question of a conscious person.
I would like to know who the other unions are that are working with Sierra Club on the issue of ocean "farming" of salmon. Here in Hawaii we are told that sea farming will be a good economic engine for our depleted stocks of fish ---- and create more jobs. Our legislators in the state do not appear to be interested in hearing about any negatives either - when it came to ocean liners and dumping of waste around the islands it took years for any action on their trash practices. We have 4 major Wal-Marts on the island of Oahu - with another one being built. The Wal-Mart effect is here - and yet no word from our local press, and just some local union voices over the mega-stores. The issue of what is in the Wal-Mart - and how it remains so cheap - is a question that is VERY rarely asked by anyone who steps into the store. It should be the first question of a conscious person.
Mr Fishman's profile of the farmed salmon industry seems incomplete to me, because it does not address the American fish industry. I grew up on Kodiak Island, and the salmon fishery was the main economy during my childhood. I even spent a summer on a commercial salmon seiner as a deckhand.
It's been 20 years since I left there. I'm told things are very different today; that Fishermen can't get a price for their catches that will cover the expenses of running a boat, that one can see boats lying dormant in the harbor at the height of fishing season. I've heard that people can't afford the fuel and insurance for their boats. An entire industry has been decimated.
You can probabaly still start a fight in Alaska, by asking if the stocks of Alaskan wild fish have been well-managed. But after all the efforts to protect man and fish, and efforts to patrol the International boundary that prevents foreign nations from stealing the American fish stocks, it seems a trememdous betrayal to buy the vastly inferior Chilean fish.
Farmed fish is flabby in texture and nearly tastless. It has likely been dyed and, as Mr. Fishman points out, been fed additives. Would you be able to tell the difference? If you've eaten sushi-grade salmon,marveling at its taste and texture, most likely eaten wild salmon. That's what you're missing, and that's what the regulated American fishery has worked so hard- at times, risked their lives- to bring to you.
. . .Also, "Real Fish Don't Eat Pellets." Those are bumper stickers that have been sported by cars and trucks here in Alaska over the years.
Alaskans have done many, many stupid things over the decades -- too many to count -- but one thing we have done right is manage our salmon stocks. Major environmental organizations say so, at least. I think it's a good idea to support good environmental stewardship any way possible. (However, there are some threats to that good stewardship from some terrible Murkowski administration policies and the possible development of a huge open-pit mine near Bristol Bay, but I digress.)
As for concerns about high prices of Alaska salmon, consumers can always buy pink salmon, which is the cheapest and most plentiful of the five Alaska varieties. It's so cheap that it's regularly donated to food banks and school lunch programs. I personally would choose canned pink salmon (and of course, canned red salmon) over so-called "fresh" farmed salmon every time. In fact, I just came back from the grocery store, where I bought some canned reds for my family.
Costco sells Alaska salmon, at least here. There are laws that require place-of-origin labeling. If anyone's switching labels or mislabeling salmon, they're breaking the law. Also, many Alaska fishing organizations use their own distinctive regional labeling. Examples are Copper River, Aleutia, Kenai Wild. They know where their fish is being sold and where it's not being sold, in case anyone's counterfeiting. (You're right that it does happen -- there was a recently big New York Times expose on how several grocers and restaurants were falsely labeling farmed salmon as wild.)
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
